The music cut and the room filled with deafening silence mixed with our breaths.
Then, clapping.
I whipped around and found Luke in his dust-covered jeans and work T-shirt, leaning against the wall, gaping at us with an amused smile that made his eyes glitter.
“Oh my gosh, how long have you been home?! You’re early!” Heat rushed to my cheeks. The music was so loud neither of us heard him come in. His arms crossed in front of his chest when he finished clapping, that amused grin still dancing across his face.
“Long enough to enjoy quite the Broadway show.”
I shook my head, pulling my lip under my teeth.He must think I’m such a geek. I bet he was a popular athlete in high school.
But damn, he looked good leaning against that wall. I wondered if he knew crossing his arms like that, in a T-shirt, made his biceps so pronounced it was almost obscene.
Luna leapt from the couch and hugged her dad around the waist. She was still in her dirty tennis outfit, hair a wild mess framing her face. “Rachel made me switch tennis partners and now I’m playing with Clara but we’re going to beat them in the tournament,” she said with resolve. Pride filled my chest. I loved her fire.
“Is that so?” Luke ran his hand over her braid affectionately.His palm was so much larger than her head it was comical. He stole a look in my direction.
I gave him a small nod. I’d tell him the full story later.
He crouched down so he was at her eye level. “Wanna take a shower while I get dinner going?”
She nodded, turned on her heel, and scampered upstairs.
“Sorry, she wasn’t in the mood to shower when we got home.”
“She was in the mood to sing instead?”
“Well…that was my idea.” I walked in the kitchen and lowered my voice. “She was in a major funk about Rachel asking her to switch partners. So I suggested we do what I used to do when I needed a motivation boost.” I popped my shoulder up.
“Seems like it worked!” His expression was something between mirth and disbelief.
“I think so!” A smile tugged on my cheeks.
“So Broadway music, that’s the trick to pulling you out of a bad mood?” he asked, his head in the fridge, already taking out the bottle of rosé, a beer, a tray of chicken nuggets, and a white paper package I assumed contained the salmon he promised me.
“One of ’em.” I pressed my lips together.
He turned, resting his hip on the counter, and raised an eyebrow at me. But I didn’t go on, letting what other unnamed things could get me out of a bad mood remain a mystery.
Over dinner on the back deck, Luna asked me what theater shows I’d been in, had I ever doneWicked, had I everseenWicked, and can Luke take her to see it. Luke followed our banter back and forth between bites of salmon and rice, shaking his head occasionally. Our impromptu karaoke session might have opened a can of worms for him…
By the time we cleared the table, it was nearly Luna’s bedtime.
We managed to carry everything back inside between the three of us. I was rinsing dishes and loading them into the dishwasherwhen Luna came up beside me and pressed her finger into my shoulder. The pressure made a white indentation before it turned back to an angry red. After the fuss I’d made earlier this week about covering Luna in sunscreen, I’d forgotten my own that day, a last-minute change from a T-shirt to a tank top leaving my poor shoulders defenseless.
“I know, I forgot to put sunscreen on my shoulders today,” I said to Luna with a sigh.
She disappeared down the hall toward the first-floor bathroom and returned with a green bottle of aloe. She squeezed some onto her hands and started rubbing it into my shoulders. It was so sweet of her, my throat closed up. The slider screeched as Luke came inside from cleaning the grill.
“Thanks, Luna,” I said to her softly.
“You’re welcome!” She disappeared again to put the bottle back in the bathroom.
“That’s a really sweet little girl you have there,” I said to Luke, my voice hoarse.
“I know.” He smiled proudly.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, embarrassed that I was having such an emotional reaction to the kind gesture.
